My feedback after a first week of playing

[Gadd]

Here's my feedback after the first week of playing (alot). I'm not looking to start a discussion, just want to give my thoughts to the developers.

Note that I realize this is an alpha, I've read the instructions and I know everything is temporary and that we're mostly testing stability. I'm still gonna say what I personally like/dislike in the current build so that you get another data point on what is 'fun' for different people. Also note that whenever I say something is not great, I mean it in the context of the best game ever made and you are all awesome:)

I ran one playthough going only to space (ignoring teleporters) and one where I colonized the teleporter connected world first.

### Swamp world
This is awesome! I love the new biomes and found the challenge of 'cleaning up' the starting area a ton of fun. I like to put my toilet water in plants, and having a new plant for doing so was a great addition. Sludge press is sweet. Pacus eating seeds now is amazing.

Less good was that deodorizer management requires a bit too much manual control. I wish I could just delete them without having to enclose them in tiles to catch that last bit of pO2 on deletion. Running out of sulfur also feels bad. Composts are very hard to use now that you have 100+ tons of pdirt, as dupes get 'clean' pdirt instead of germ infested dirt and rot piles unless I manually trap them. Sweep support would help. The mud de-gassing animation is very intense and distracting.

### Teleporters & Warp Conduit
I was really disappointed when I saw these. I was looking forward to breaching the surface, scouting new worlds, colonizing and creating automated cargo lanes back with resources (like oil). The teleporter immediately showed me the first world and the star map, removing the suspense of scouting with the telescope. Teleporting felt like skipping the entire journey of finding the world and defeating the gravity well. I would like to see this tech moved to mid/late game planetoids only; I would like space to be the only way off the initial planetoid.

I don't like how the dupe in cryosleep forces me to add a random dupe. I would like to preview what dupe it is first. Save/load as a game mechanic doesn't feel great.

### Multiple colonies
The size of the planetoids is perfect for me and I love how there is no longer a need for geyser scouting. Also like how the first planetoid is easily made sustainable via the cold water geysers so that I can focus on the other worlds.

The biggest problem for me is that dupes get idle easily. I really wish they would just go to the recreation room and hang out instead of wander into bad areas and trigger beeping warnings. I want to focus on a single colony at the time, not jumping between all colonies every pause to make sure all dupes are maximized.

The hotkeys doesn't seem to work for me. I don't know what 'BACKQUOTE+1' means and I can't find it in the hotkeys menu. Camera hotkeys don't store the planetoid they were saved in, so they just move to blackness when recalled on the wrong planetoid.

I've had a strange bug where dupes on other worlds 'teleport' around when moving. It kind of looks like if A-Train was a dupe (the boys > marvel). I think the dupe is still effectively moving at the same speed but sometimes skips the animation, teleporting to the next waypoint.

### Space

The initial trailblazer when colonizing a new world forces a 'save and load' playstyle due to the risk. I wish I could prepare more for the initial few cycles. I did send down a scout rover to dig out the base and algae via orbital cargo, but the randomness of where they land and the extremly small quantities still makes me save/load multiple times to avoid losing a dupe. I wish I could choose where orbital cargo lands. 

I thought my first scout rover had gotten stuck since it had no 'move to' order. It took me a 2nd rover to figure out I had to give dig orders. I saw just now (as I'm posting) in another post that it can build things? I didn't realize this and kept doing zig zag dig orders to move around. If that is the case, I will try this again and see how the trailblazing experience is when I can pre-build the initial 1 dupe base. That sounds like alot more fun.

The morale need of colonizing makes me avoid skilling up my dupes, which feels bad. I don't want to add new dupes; I prefer adventuring with my initial squad.

After many many hours, I still have no idea how fuel and range works. I see words like 'burden' and 'power' but I can't find info on what they mean. I noticed just recently that there is a 'fuel/kg' thing when adding rocket components, but I can't find the same info once I've built them. Right now, I just fill up the rocket and see how far it goes. The sucrose/oxidizer rocket being weaker than CO2 one feels backwards to me. The CO2 is much easier and cheaper to use.

Solar panels are (obviously) a bit strong now. Though I kind of like being able to send glass to my tiny colony to make a solar panel to spare my dupes from running the wheel. Please don't add back the old meteors + door automation though, as that system was not fun at all.

The rocket platform forces weird ladder placements. I wish dupes could just reach the modules by climbing the rocket platform mesh, or if building ladders next to the platform got them close enough.

I still don't understand the crew modes of command modules. I currently set to 'crew' before launching, but that means my dupes pee themselves when they get back unless I remember to change the setting when they land.

I didn't know I had to check interior of rocket before launching and killed my first astronaut. This was not a 'ooh they got me' moment, it was more like an 'uuuuh but I finally completed the huge checklist' momen.

I don't think 'spaceships as colonies' is fun. It forces yet another 'context switch' for very little gain. And I don't just mean the bugs (like dupes using outhouses/refrigerators inside, having to manually use bottle emptiers to add water, no way to 'empty' rockets without deleting, having to manually control storage compactors to get just the right amount of each resource), I mean the whole concept just doesn't add anything for me except alot of manual work and needless colony switching. I would personally prefer if command modules worked like before, but perhaps a later game tech could be colony ships or star bases that have larger interiors where it makes more sense to actually enter and build a base inside.

Opening the star map, I immediately see the entire extent of the explorable galaxy. I realize there has to be a limit, but I think not seeing the edge would give more sense of wonder and exploration. Perhaps the unexplored tile hexagon grid could just continue further away (so that I can't scroll to see it all), even if telescopes effectively limit the range of your empire to the same area.

All in all, I've had a blast this past week and I look forward to where this is going! <3